TreyM

A month ago I posted a list called "Top 10 Ways to get your Preacher to Quit." It may have been my most popular post. I thought I'd follow up on that list with today's Top 10 list on how to encourage you preacher.

1- Pray for him regularly. This may be the greatest thing you can do for him. Include him in your daily prayers, and then, tell him you're praying for him. You might even ask him occasionally, "Is there anything I can be praying about for you?"

2 - Instead of being critical, tell him what he's doing right. Too many times we focus on the things that we don't like about people instead of what they are doing right. Instead of saying the sermons are too long, to deep, to simple, to short (like that would ever happen), tell him what you like about his sermons. Instead of pointing out the negatives in his life, look for some positive things. Make sure you tell him regularly what he's doing right.

3 - Give him time off and allow him a life outside the church. Ministers are on call 24/7 and so it's good when they can have some "down time." Here are some ways you can do this... Encourage your preacher to take time off to vacation with his family or just get away. Another thing you can do is respect your preacher's day off. Any preacher would drop what they are doing to help you in a crisis on their day off, but don't call him on his day off to have him look up a church phone number or address for you.

4 - Be willing to work with your preacher. Don't expect him to do everything. Ask him if you can go make visits with him or volunteer to help when needed. Nothing is more frustrating to a preacher than having to beg for help.

5 - Don't starve your preacher but pay him a fair salary. There used to be an old joke about how churches would pray for their preachers, "Lord, if you'll keep him humble, we'll keep him poor." It's appalling that there are churches that assume that the preacher is in a "spiritual" vocation, and doesn't need to be paid as much as similar people in the community.

That's 5 of the 10. If you want to drop by and read the rest (6-10) you can tell me what I forgot or left off.

Here's the others (click here) or check the signature:

Blessings,

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My Blog: www.treymorgan.net